I wish whoever commented on “vocal fry” of NK in CW’s threads could comment here.
Bottom line, I thought that it was the voice of a chronic smoker, then realized that if the person had mere flu with laryngitis (February!), it was enough to hear it.
Then I remembered several genetic conditions when kids already had raspy voices. I am not implying BG has any of these, but simply, young people can have raspy voices because genes make them speak so.
Also, totally unrelated - I know a woman from those parts of the country who speaks like this, too. Makes me wonder if vocal fry is more common in IN, after all?
And also - I can name a few singers, from different European countries, who spoke 100% normally, but sang in raspy voices as it was the style. Starting with Jacques Brel, and ending with one exceptionally popular in my mother country. Maybe they all mimicked Brel, as he was the father of French chanson.
My point is, if people can “drop” a voice that much for singing, one could do it easier for mere speech.
Example - a song by ZAZ. Very popular. I listened to her speech - it has a tad of raspiness; However, if you can sing like this, surely someone can speak this way?